The retired Passaic police officer has defied the odds once more and last week collected his third large lottery prize in less than five years.

Ontell's latest stroke of good fortune came Sept. 6 when he matched five numbers in the Mega Millions drawing. The standard $250,000 payout became $1 million, though, because Ontell chose the Megaplier option when he purchased his ticket at Marina Sweet Shop in Passaic.

The odds of a Mega Millions ticket matching five numbers are 3,904,701 to 1.

Ontell's run of amazing fortune began in March 2009 when he matched five numbers and won $250,000 playing Mega Millions. At that point he realized he could win even more using the lottery's mutiplier options.

That helped him turn a $10,000 Powerball payout in November 2011 into a $40,000 windfall when he paid an extra $1 to for the Powerplay.

If he has any grand plans for his money, Ontell kept it to himself. "I will invest it with the broker who helped me with all of my winnings, " he told lottery officials.

Ontell, a regular at Marina Sweet Shop, has struck up a friendship with owner Bharat Shah through the years and brought the shopkeeper with him to New Jersey Lottery headquarters to claim his largest prize. Shah didn't leave empty-handed, either, pocketing a $10,000 commission for selling the ticket.

Ontell retired from the Passaic police department in 1995 after 30 years on the job and also collects an annual pension of $48,051, public records indicate.